« August 2007 | Main | October 2007 »
According to WSJ's Law Blog, Chemerinsky and Chancellor Michael Drake had a little sit-down over the weekend, and Drake hit the "refresh" button and offered the UC Irvine law school dean position to Chemerinsky again. Law Blog has a copy of Chemerinsky's farewell e-mail to Duke's law school community.
We at ZiefBrief enjoy browsing a wide range of non-legal blogs in our copious free time. One favorite is Indexed, which the author Jessica Hagy calls "a little project that lets me make fun of some things and sense of others. I use it to think a little more relationally without resorting to doing actual math." Using charts, graphs, venn diagrams and other devices she makes trenchant social commentary on the back of 3 X 5 index cards. We especially enjoy todays entry, click on the small image to see it in a full size, pop-up window.
The law blogs are abuzz today with the news that prominent Constitutional scholar and Duke Law professor Erwin Chemerinsky was recently hired as Dean of the new UC Irvine Law School -- then promptly fired. According to Brian Leiter's Law School Reports, UCI Chancellor Michael Drake flew to Durham yesterday to notify Chemerinsky, who had just been hired the week before, that he was being terminated. The reason? Chemerinsky's liberal political views, which might not sit well in the largely conservative, Republican Orange County, where UCI is located.
The Wall Street Journal Law Blog picked up this story and spoke to Chemerinsky, who confirmed the Chancellor's expressed concern that he would be a "lightning rod" and a target of criticism for conservatives. Chemerinsky told the WSJ that a significant opposition to his appointment had developed, but the Chancellor did not name names.
As a fledgling law school at a major UC campus, it's unfortunate that UCI Law is already generating negative publicity. The search for Dean continues...
I'm not a huge TV watcher, so I just heard about the new CBS reality show, "Kid Nation," a few weeks ago. The show features several dozen children who must fend for themselves for forty days while living in an abandoned New Mexico town. After watching the preview, it sounds like CBS is trying to pitch the show as a very lengthy and elaborate civics lesson (note the earnest voiceover on the show's website announcing that "forty new pioneers will try to fix their forefathers' mistakes and build a town that works"), but it sounds a bit too much like Lord of the Flies to me. So why is this legal news? Because of the waiver that parents of participating children must sign. TortsProf Blog called it a "heck of a waiver," but after a quick scan of all 22 single-spaced pages over at The Smoking Gun, I'd classify it as the mother of all waivers.
According to an article in the Chronicle of Higher Education, a prospective law student (who had graduated magna cum laude from Rutgers University) attempted to purchase a copy of the LSAT from employees of the Law School Admission Test for $5,000. He made his initial contact with the employees through notes slipped under the wipers of their cars. The notes had $100 bills taped to them -- a sure-fire attention getter. The dutiful workers notified their supervisors who arranged a sting operation with the local constabulary. The miscreant has received five years’ probation and was ordered to undergo a psyche evaluation. No word as to his future career plans.
The Wall Street Journal's Law Blog is featuring advice for first-year law students from a host of literary lawyers, including Scott Turow, Jeremy Blachman (aka Anonymous Lawyer), Cameron Stracher, and Jeffrey Toobin.
